Noelle Hartnett
Noelle studied clinical speech and language studies at Trinity College, Dublin, graduating in June 2007.
Like so many others she wasn’t immediately convinced by her chosen career path and so embarked on year of travel – primarily in Africa. She took an opportunity to volunteer in a home for abandoned children with disabilities in Nigeria. Her time in Africa led her to London to complete a masters in cross-cultural studies in child, child development studies.
Noelle says: “Constructive procrastination is what I call these two years of my life. On the one hand I was rejecting the mainstream career path for my profession but in reality I was acquiring so many skills that are so important for my work now. The ability to look at every situation as being multifaceted, to be both culturally and socially sensitive to each individual’s understanding of disability and to never treat two children as if they are the same.”
When she’d completed her masters degree she was asked by Caroline deFina, now head of BAC, to join one of her teams. “I had no knowledge of ABA, but the intensive one to one work, and the specifically tailored programmes appealed to me. So began my never ending learning process, ” she says.
The mention of Applied Behavioural Analysis among parents, therapist and carers results in a spectrum of response from shouts of praise to a barrage of criticism. ABA has a history of disapproval among parents and professionals alike. Noelle says that for her, ABA is a functional, practical and constructive method of empowering children and families with the skills for life. It is a means of unlocking a childs true potential.
“I have now been working with children with autism for three and a half years. Every day I am reminded of how much I have learned over this time and how much I still have to learn. I love that every day is different than the one before. And while there are times this terrifies me, I thoroughly enjoy that on a daily basis I have the possibility of having a positive impact on the lives of the children with whom I work, ” says Noelle.
Hi my daughter is 6 years old and she is verbal. She keeps telling me what to say she asks me to ask her something and then she will answer. Have you any ideas what i could do , i have tried telling her to say ask me. Thanks Christina.
From Noelle,
Christina
To give you specific advice it would be great to have some examples of the kinds of questions she want you to ask her, for example if it might be What are we doing today? Or What are we having for lunch, she may want you to ask her, so she can control the response, she would then have more control over the day, for example you ask on her request What are we doing today? She can make a choice, the choice is hers rather than yours. She may need reassurance as to what is happening every day.
If it is a case, that she tells you exactly the way a questions should be phrased, for example Mom say what do you want for lunch? If she used the phrase ask me to you, you may say what do you want to eat? This could be her exerting control, or she may be unsure how to answer questions if phrased differently
Without further information I am speculating, but for the first scenario you may need to reassure her what the plan is for the day, she may need it written down so she can refer to it. She will also need to be told that sometimes she gets to make a choice and sometimes Mommy gets a choice. If this is the case we can further discuss how you would deal with this, when I have more information.
For the second scenario, you could work on it with a similar technique, saying sometimes you can choose what Mommy says and sometimes Mommy makes her own choice,
Hope this is helpful, please send me some examples and I would be happy to give you more information
Noelle Hartnett
Pingback: Meet the experts, Tips Of The Week by Noelle Hartnett -